Should
I Submit my book manuscript to a publisher via certified mail?
You've seen in the how-to-get-happily-published
manuals (and there are many) that you should send a
knock-'em-dead cover letter with your manuscript.
That's true. But one thing that is also appearing in
these same writing manuals is that you should send
your work via certified mail so that someone there at
the publisher has to sign for it. This is really
handy, the manuals say, if you are sending something
unsolicited. Why? Because that signature shows that
you sent the publisher your manuscript so they can't
claim they never received it and that the "great
idea" they had, which just happens to be very
similar to yours, was not just a remarkable
coincidence.
Don't do it. I have to assume
that either some lawyer (who does not understand the
publishing business) or a "newbie" editor (who
is so thrilled to be a real live book editor that
they just love signing for these things) came up with
this idea.
Don't get me wrong, I love getting
things in the mail as much as the next editor, I am
all for protecting a writer's rights, and I don't
dislike lawyers, especially those who truly
understand publishing and aren't just doing a favor
for some writer friend of theirs. But speaking as a
professional, certified mail really irks me. One, are
you saying that I'm not capable, or my publishing
company isn't capable, to handle basic mail? If so,
then why are you sending it to me? Two, unless you
are absolutely sure that the person you addressed it
to is going to be there on the day and at the moment
it arrives, you better not demand a signature. Three,
people can get a little uneasy when they are handed
certified mail-there's just something about it that
feels like it is much more legally binding than
signing for, say, a UPS shipment. (Other than the
President and certain members of congress, no one
ever gets bad news or legal documents delivered by
UPS.)
Let me give you a personal example.
Four months after I left my former publisher, I had
to drive all the way up there (a two-hour round trip)
to claim a letter for them as a personal favor. I had
no clue who it was from, whether it was important or
whether it was some legal document. It was just
addressed to me at that address.
It turns out it was a query letter
from an author who did some poor research and
shouldn't have even sent the manuscript to that
particular publisher. But because it was addressed to
me personally, and not to the publisher, I had to go
pick it up or they wouldn't deliver it.
Also, there were several times when
I was still at that company that I had to drive over
to the post office to pick up something because I was
at lunch when they'd tried to deliver it. Believe me,
I wasn't in the best of moods to read anything the
author had sent in.
Keep in mind that your main goal is
to be a professional writer or at least appear that
way. True, sending something certified, with a cover
letter and a SASE, shows that you at least take
yourself seriously enough to read about how to do
these things. You also want to start things off on
the right foot. Making them uneasy about just what
they're signing for or making them drive to the post
office-however long it takes-is not the way to start
things off. In a publishing market where 70,000 new
titles were printed last year, you need every
advantage you can get, even if it's a subtle one.
If you're worried about copyright,
then there are plenty of other courses of action to
take.
But that tip is for another time.